Rail transport is commonly used to convey passengers, goods, other materials, etc., from one location to another. To do so, two or more locomotives form a consist to push or pull freight and/or passenger cars along the rails. Locomotives also generally include network components that communicate with each other and facilitate user interaction via one or more wired and/or wireless networks to monitor and/or control the locomotive.
When a plurality of locomotives are connected to each other to form a consist, it may be desirable for the network components within one locomotive to communicate with network components in one or more other locomotives. In certain circumstances, however, environmental factors and/or characteristics of the communication lines connecting the network components may degrade the channel quality of the communication lines, interfering with the proper transmission of these communications. Moreover, if multiple communications are being sent over wires within the communication lines simultaneously, crosstalk may be generated, further degrading the channel. Thus, a system is needed to ensure proper transmission of communication data by reducing these deleterious effects.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2011/0282525 (the '525 patent application) to Kraeling et al. is directed to a system for communicating data on multiple communication lines in a locomotive consist. In particular, the '525 patent application discloses transmitting data within a locomotive consist between two or more locomotives over a plurality of communication lines. The system described by the '525 patent application, however, may not account for factors such a crosstalk on the communication lines when multiple data transmissions occur simultaneously.
The disclosed methods and systems are directed to solving one or more of the problems set forth above and/or other problems of the prior art.